Economy is not generally considered to be comfortable, it is considered to be economical travel.

While we can debate if it is economical or not, we all can probably agree it is not very comfortable.

I am not familiar with the author, but my take is that he has received better service in economy than he did in UNITED Business class.

Recently flew on AA and my Business class seat was in-operative ex-NRT and the flight attendant said that since the mechanic could not fix my seat, I would have to sit in economy during take-off, landing and potentially during heavy turbulence.

My broken seat was stuck in a very uncomfortable position and there were times when I considered just staying in economy, but admittedly the space was much greater in Business, so I put up with the less than comfortable position.

Would I prefer economy, no not generally, but if the service was awful, the seat broken, maybe economy could be more appealing?